Budget Talks ….
Understanding our Budgets one piece at a time.

First of all, I want to keep this one fairly short. I want to do a collection of “Budget Talks” that help everyone to understand Municipal Finance.

I have sat on various boards as a director (and as a treasurer) where millions of dollars were under my influence, but I am not a municipal accountant, so please feel free to weigh in and help clarify any areas I get wrong, or add to our discussion if my descriptions are incomplete.

Our “Tax Levy” is a term that I have recently used in other discussions. The taxes our Municipality collect help to finance many different expenditures, but they are basically broken down into two components; our municipal rate and our education rate. Our Council only has control of the municipal portion and even that is comprised of two components. We are part of an upper tier municipality (Simcoe County) and only our Mayor and Deputy Mayor have a say in that number.

Our Council has 100% control over the planned spending of the Town Wasaga Beach and they pass a bylaw which sets the dollar amount required and provides further clarification about residential vs. industrial property tax values.

I have said before and I will repeat… considering, discussing, establishing a responsible budget is one of the most important duties of our elected officials.

To start our tax journey…. Check out the 2024 levy bylaw.

Regardless of MPAC assessments (discussed later) this “levy” does not change without a new bylaw.